vitamin A in the African Region, finding a sustainable
mechanism to deliver the supplement remains a problem. Of the
five countries reviewed in this paper, four routinely integrate
vitamin A into polio campaigns. Given the reduced polio risk in
Tanzania, the number of annual polio campaigns has decreased
and the country now looks to other campaigns such as measles
to integrate supplementation of vitamin A. In the context of the
Polio Endgame Strategy 2013–2018 [14] the number of polio campaigns
will continue to decrease in the coming years which may
pose a risk to the continued supplementation of vitamin A in many
countries. It was noted as part of the best practices documentation
that the Government of Angola provides all financial resources for
immunization campaigns excluding independent monitoring and
social mobilization and therefore may be at less risk of decreasing
opportunities to supplement children with vitamin A.
A second risk to vitamin A supplementation programs as polio
winds down is in regards to reported coverage data [15]. Polio
has provided a mechanism for reporting nationwide data on
supplements given for vitamin A in countries and as we near the
endgame of polio, there is a risk that both doses of vitamin A supplements
will reduce and that data quality and reporting will
decrease.
One limitation to our report is the data available for vitamin A
deficiency, supplementation approaches and coverage is limited